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Saturday, February 22, 2014

Chips - Seasonal Celebration in British Supermarkets - National Chip Week, Health & Safety

I love potatoes, any kind of potatoes, for health baked potatoes in their jackets, but children like finger food such as chips. Every high street in Britain has a fish and chip shop, often open late after the coffee bars serving sandwiches have closed.
   Cheap as chips? We used to say, 'Chips with everything'. (To readers in America, French fries are those spindly things you get with burgers, more fat, less potato, more calories, even less healthy than the great British chip.) National chip week in London, England in 2014 is/was (depending when you read this) Feb 17th to 23rd.
   Nowadays you can pick up a free magazine of recipes in many supermarkets. I have a Waitrose card which gives me free coffee and a newspaper in Waitrose - even the expensive Sunday Times on Sundays. Free newspapers such as Harrow Times drop through the front doors and can be picked up free in supermarkets, estate agents and other shops.
   But you can read the UK newspapers anywhere in the world - on line when you are in the USA, Singapore or Australia. In the same way that I can read American news in the Daily Mail on line, and the Singapore news on line when I am in London.
   If you are not near a fish and chip shop, you can cook your own at home. I don't for safety, but other members of my family do.
  Shops in southern England will offer you salt and vinegar to go on your chips. Unhealthy, maybe, but so good. And it's giving me vitamin C. But what of healthy - and safety?
Fire Safety
   As a landlady I provide fire extinguishers and smoke alarms in kitchen to protect my tenants and their families. Plus my property. And the other people living in the building. And neighbours - fires can spread. Providing fire exits and fire extinguishers and smoke alarms - yes, it is all required by local and national regulations. Plus insurance companies.
   On another of my blogs, in my diary, you can see the horrific pictures of smoke after my neighbour's garden caught fire, black smoke higher than the house - their neighbours entire garden fence and Cypress Leylandii - whoosh of red flames - then all gone like a rocket.
    Fires inside the house can start quickly from over heated attended and unattended chip pans. Use a high sided pan. Don't fill more than a third full. If it starts smoking it's too hot already. Never leave the chip pan unwatched. Stay beside it. Keep children away. How to control the temperature? News to me - a thermostatically controlled electric deep fat fryer for chips. Never throw water on a chip pan fire. Use a fire blanket. Turn off the gas/electricity. Call 999. Get out! Have a fire exit plan. Test your smoke alarm weekly. Replace your smoke alarm batteries or the entire alarm - read the instructions on it and/or the box. Consider oven chips instead.
   Advice on fire safety from Facebook.com/firekills and http://fireservice.co.uk/dafety/chip-pans.
www.harrowtimes
chips.lovepotatoes.co.uk/facts-figures
www.potato.org.uk
see wiki lists food days and food months. Global days include bacon, beer, chips, coffee, egg, vegan, vegetarian, water. Italy has an espresso day. Luxembourg has Pretzel Sunday.
US potato chip = UK crisps  UK chips =

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